Naruto: Seal Repaired
by earthtower
Summary: What if it was discovered early on that Naruto's seal had a broken filter? How would things change if the filter was gradually repaired? Follow along as Naruto gains his status as a proper Jinchuuriki
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! I'm Earthtower, and this is my first attempt at a fanfiction. I will probably be updating around every two weeks, but if I don't I'm sorry for the wait in advance, I am juggling a part time job, a full time job, and full-time school right now (Plus my parents HATE the fact that I like to spend time on the computer instead of constantly filling their house with random people, weird right?) So anyways the stories original concept isn't entirely mine, I came up with the idea when I was reading Third Fang's Yet Again with a Little Extra Help (hysterical read). Basically, Naruto's filter seal is messed up, and while it will be discovered almost immediately, it won't be totally fixed for a while, and the repair will get done in stages, gradually giving Naruto some boosts (won't tell you what they are, although some will be obvious, because that is a spoiler, and to be honest I haven't decided what they will all be, or whether there will even be anything major. Chapter length will probably vary a lot, don't know for sure, but I'll be shooting for at least 2,500 words a chapter to start, might lengthen them if I think I have the time.**

**Ok, time for a major shocker, I don't own Naruto. It's sad, but probably for the best, as I cannot draw, and a manga/anime where the writer (is that the right title, or is it like publisher or supreme overlord or something else random?) cannot draw is not good at all.**

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood wearily in front of the Konohagakure council, the Fire Daimyo, and the High Court of Fire Country, holding an infant with blonde hair and endless blue eyes. From a casual glance, he seemed calm, flanked by his stone-faced advisors Homura and Koharu, carefully neutral in posture and expression. For those that knew him well, it wasn't hard to see that he was shaken and angry.

"In what way would it be better to murder this child? To dishonor the dying words of the man who protected you with his life." He asked, his too-smooth tone indicating his inner fury.

At this point Hiashi Hyuuga stepped forward. "Hokage-sama, the boy's chakra is nearly completely red; there is no way that he can resist the influences of the fox when his coils are dominated by youki."

"What! Why would you wait until now, nearly two weeks after the sealing, to mention this to me? Fugaku! Jiraiya! Confirm this!" Sarutobi demanded, struggling to maintain his control.

Fugaku, head of the Uchiha clan, stepped forward first, activating the famous Sharingan as he did so. Staring directly into the boys eyes, he slumped, almost immediately straightening with a startled yell. "The demons presence fills his mind; I could barely step in before it found me and threw me out."

With this proclamation, many of the nobles began to mutter nervously, and some of the council appeared to be preparing to speak, when the Daimyo spoke up. "Jiraiya of the Densetsu-Sennin, what can you detect?" A pause, as many in the room began to look at Jiraiya who, strangely enough, had a pair of toads latched to his shoulders as he meditated, head down hiding his face. Just as those assembled began to grow impatient, Jiraiya opened his eyes and looked up, causing many of the non-ninja to gasp at the toad-like appearance and yellow eyes of the Toad-Sennin.

"I am sorry to call you here for this, Elder Toads, but we must be sure the seal is fully functional." Jiraiya spoke quietly, but his words sent a hush across the room. Standing up, he walked over to Hiruzen, and pulled the baby's shirt up, placing his finger on the boy's stomach and channeling chakra, watching as the seal appeared. After nearly a half an hour, he finally looked up. "I detect nothing wrong with the seal, but Uchiha-san and Hyuuga-san are right, the Kyuubi's chakra is not being correctly filtered."

With this, many of the council saw their chance to be rid of the demon that had caused so much grief, and began to call for his execution. "Enough! Allow me to finish speaking!" Jiraiya shouted, bringing the room back to dead silence. "What you see is not the entire seal, I will have to check the seal inside his mind to view the filter, but I will need the Yamanaka's help for this." At his word an elderly man with grey-streaked yellow hair stepped forward.

"I will assist you in this, Jiraiya. I cannot ask it of anyone else in my clan." The Yamanaka head, Isamu, spoke. "I will have to enter first, and if Fugaku-san is right, you will not have much time before we are forced to leave."

Jiraiya pondered this for a moment; then replied. "I need you to hold out as long as possible if I need to do anything with the filter. Let's begin."

With that, Hiruzen stepped forward. "May I ask that everyone adjourn to another chamber while Jiraiya and Isamu check the seal? We cannot distract them, entering any mind is risky, entering this mind will be even more so." The assorted officials, politicians, and other ninja filed out of the meeting chamber, followed by Sarutobi. Pausing just before he left, he spoke again, "Do everything you can, we cannot dishonor his legacy. I will keep these fools from trying to interfere and make things worse." Sarutobi looked down at the baby now cradled in Jiraiya's arms. "Do not allow Naruto to come to harm. You, of all people Jiraiya, should know what I mean."

As Sarutobi gave the child's name, Jiraiya inhaled sharply and snapped his head up, only to see the tail of the Hokage's cloak as he stepped out of the room. "So that is why Minato chose him." He murmured, too low for anyone else to hear. "Naruto, I will not fail you."

Isamu spoke, already performing hand-seals. "Jiraiya, I am going to enter his mind now, I will pull you in shortly afterwards." As Jiraiya gave a nod in compliance, Isamu suddenly threw his hands out, placing them on Jiraiya and the child; no, Naruto's head and slumped. Almost immediately, Jiraiya slumped as well, and they both entered the seal.

**Ok so the chapter wasn't very long this time. I didn't want to go any farther because this is a great stopping point, and I (unfortunately) have an early day tomorrow and want to have something posted tonight. Let me know what you think, I promise I won't get offended, unless you didn't say anything helpful to my improvement, or if your comments lacked intelligence. Seriously though, I almost prefer criticism, since it helps me improve, but if you do have something nice to say on something specific, that helps too because then I know what I'm doing right. Thanks for taking a look, I hope you liked it ****. Adios!**


	2. Repairing the Seal

** Hello again! I figured since the first chapter was short I would try to get the next one out early. Also, a big thanks to mrpeeples, as my first review and favorite for the story! Frankly, I am astonished I got anything within a 12-hour period of my start, and I appreciate the fast attention. Anyways, here goes nothing! Oh and I do not own Naruto.**

Jiraiya landed in a heap inside Naruto's mindscape, right in front of Isamu. Blearily sitting up, he took a quick look around. Dirty walls and a pair of pipes, one small, and deep blue, the other huge, red, and clearly leaking, were the only notable features other than the coating of water along the floor. _'Kids mind is already a sewer, that's kind of hilarious. I won't even need to try to corrupt him.'_ "Ok Isamu, which way are we going."

"Give me a second; I'm trying to locate the prison." Isamu replied, his voice a little strained. "Ok, I think I've got it, but we might have a problem. The way there is corrupted with the fox's chakra, and his influence is spreading."

"We need to hurry, if the fox succeeds, he may very well be able to escape, especially since I have the key. Lead the way." The pair began to run, Jiraiya closely following Isamu as they began to thread their way through Naruto's mind.

Almost immediately, they began to see signs of the fox's corruption. Where before the water coating the floor looked dirty; now it was blood red. The red pipe on the wall was clearly cracking, and a jet of red fountained out from the pipe's seams. As they drew close, nearly halfway there, the fox finally made its move to oust the invaders of its domain. The bloody water in front of them rose in a wave, and behind them one of the sprays of water spread to make a wall of red. As the wave drew closer, Jiraiya paused in his rush, quickly making hand signs. As he finished the last seal, he shouted "Doton: Doryuu Kekai no Jutsu!" (Earth Fissure Jutsu)

As a large crack opened in the ground, taking the wave of water into it, Isamu winced. "Could you not rearrange the structure of Naruto's mind? I think he's going to have enough problems as it is." Jiraiya had the grace to look a little embarrassed for not thinking things through, leaping into the air to jump over the chasm he had created to try and hide his discomfort. Just as he hit the ground on the other side, the pool of water behind him rose up once again, forming another wave behind him. "Isamu!"

Jiraiya immediately began another jutsu, this time a spinning ball of chakra forming in his hand as he rushed at the wave. "RASENGAN!" Smashing the orb of chakra into the wave, he cut through, straining to create an opening for the Yamanaka head to jump through. As he broke through, Isamu jumped through the opening, forming his own hand signs. "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" (Water Dragon Jutsu) Forming the dragon from the wave, he further opened the hole in it as it began to rush towards them and fired the dragon directly into the wave, causing both to dissipate completely. Quickly moving on, they both leapt over the deep pool, and began to rush down the corridor again. After a few more minutes of running, they finally reach the seal chamber. A large room with no apparent ceiling, the chamber was unadorned, and in complete chaos. Red chakra seeped from the massive gate at the far end, churning the waters in Naruto's mind and turning them the deep red they had seen earlier, causing large ripples as the fox spread its influence.

Jiraiya looked at Isamu and shouted over the roar of the swirling waters "Stay here, I need to get to the gate!" and began to run towards the gate. As he ran, the flow of the water suddenly changed. Where before the water was clearly being contaminated and spread out, now water that had already been sent to expand the foxes influence began rushing back, quickly beginning to fill the chamber. Isamu quickly formed another water dragon, using it to stave off the rush of water for a moment as he leapt towards Jiraiya.

As the various diplomats, council members, and leaders began situating themselves in another meeting chamber, Hiruzen was on his way, deep in thought, trying to plan a course of action that would be best for Naruto, and how to divulge his heritage to the Daimyo without the Council or the Court's discovery. While he was distracted, Fugaku took the opportunity to resume the meeting. "Fellow members of the Land of Fire's government, we need to decide how to best deal with the Demon should Jiraiya fail to repair the seal. I put forward the motion that the Kyuubi boy be imprisoned within the Police Station, to be watched over and carefully monitored by the Uchiha clan, as we are best suited to prevent another rampage."

As the assembled politicians (I am going to call them this from now on, too many factions to repeatedly name them all, unless it is a specific faction speaking up) began to speak amongst themselves, Hiashi stood up, hastily stepping forward to prevent his rival from gaining control of the Kyuubi. "While Fugaku-san is correct in believing that the Uchiha clan is best suited to control the demon, they will not have any warning of when the demon will try to rage again. I will second the notion, if a Hyuuga is present at all times to watch the flow of the demons chakra, and provide warning of an attempt to break free.

Fugaku growled as, one by one, Hiashi's request was approved, and foiled his attempt to have sole control of the Kyuubi. "Very well, the motion has passed, however, if Jiraiya should manage to repair the seal, will we use the same plan?" At this point, Hiruzen walked in. "Should the seal be repaired, I myself will decide what will be done, as Naruto will almost certainly become a member of the shinobi corps, and be under my direct jurisdiction."

At his words, the Daimyo perked up. "Did you say the child's name is Naruto? What an unusual name." For the Daimyo was aware that the Fourth was to have a child, and had been informed of the name they had decided upon several months prior to the expected birthdate.

Hiruzen gave the Daimyo a knowing look, and replied. "Indeed, it is most unusual, but it was the name decided upon by the Fourth in his last moments. His last words were 'take care of Naruto, he is the one who saved this village, and he will do it again, it's in his blood to protect others.'"

As Isamu leapt to Jiraiya, the wizened Toad sage began to perform more hand signs. "Doton: Doryuheki no Jutsu!" (Mud Wall Jutsu) The ground behind Jiraiya began to quickly rise, as Isamu landed beside him. "That should buy me enough time to check the seal, prepare to get us out of here, I'll let you know exactly when." While Jiraiya spoke, he created another mud wall, this time making it like a ramp, and began to run along the top edge towards the large paper on the Kyuubi's prison, closely followed by Isamu. Once they reached the top, Jiraiya began to look over the seal, while Isamu sat down and began to meditate. Almost immediately, Jiraiya bellowed, nearly knocking Isamu off the wall as he began to furiously critique his student's finest work. "That bumbling idiot made the filter design before he made the seal! This is the complete wrong filter for a seal this complex I'm going to have to give the whole thing a boost!"

Isamu began to meditate again as Jiraiya's shouts subsided into an angry muttering, only to see the water, held back by the mud wall, begin to spill over and into the small area he had made. "Jiraiya you're going to want to hurry this up, we're running out of time."

"What? Oh crap, I don't have time to completely repair the filter; I'm going to have to do this the hard way." With that, Jiraiya began writing a circular pattern of kanji around the original filter, leaving large sections of the circle incomplete as he hastily created a simple filter enhancement design overtop the original. Just as the water reached the halfway point to the seal, he began to sketch a quick copy of the seal to take with him and study. As the water reached the top of the wall, he finished copying the last kanji, and Isamu quickly placed his hand on Jiraiya's forehead, sending him back to his own body. Before he could escape himself, the water latched on to his ankles, rising up his body as he struggled to escape, until he was completely covered. As his body sank beneath the red waves, the water began to level out, the seal beginning to clean the fox's chakra out of Naruto's system.

As Jiraiya returned to his body, his blinked, then leaned back and cracked his back. "Wow that makes you stiff, hey Isamu, thanks for the help, I got what I needed." When Isamu didn't reply, Jiraiya straightened, and looked over at the Yamanaka. Before his eyes, Isamu's body began to steam, the skin turning a bright red. Before Jiraiya could get past his shock, Isamu crumpled to the ground, his body collapsing as it began to burn away.

Jiraiya stared, shocked at Isamu's death, and began to call out when a wave of exhaustion hit him, and he collapsed.

**Once again the chapters a little on the short side, but I have class in 10 minutes, and this just seems like a decent stopping point for now. Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading! Let me know what you think, yada yada yada, Earthtower is going to sleep! I mean read more fanfiction! I mean history class! Boo history class!**


	3. Decisions, decisions

**So I know that this chapter didn't come out as quickly as the first two, but honestly, I wanted longer chapters, and there was no way I was going to pump out 2000 words in a 24 hour period. That, and some of my responsibilities have been rearing their butt-ugly heads and making me actually work. So anyways, here's another chapter, hope you enjoy! ****I don't own Naruto**

The first thing Jiraiya noticed when he began to wake up was a throbbing headache. As he groggily tried to bring himself back to the living, he quickly noticed the familiar smell of antiseptics and the uncomfortably white ceiling assaulting his eyes. Trying to remember how he got here, he noted that the room was empty, and immediately leapt out of bed to sneak out the window, only to smash back into the bed as the rubber cord attached to his hospital gown reached the limits of its extension. Instantly, an ANBU popped his head into the room from the window. "Ah, Master Jiraiya, I thought I heard you trying to escape. Relax, you won't be here much longer, Hokage-sama has already been informed that you are awake, and we are awaiting his response before we allow you to get up and speak with him."

Jiraiya grumbled, trying to clear his mind of cobwebs, suddenly took note of what the ANBU said. "Wait why does the old man need to speak with me? Did the lovely ladies at the secret kunoichi hot springs put in another complaint after they caught me peeking on them again?"

At the inane comment the ANBU sweatdropped. "No, it has to do with the meeting with the Daimyo and the council a few days ago. You must have hit your head harder than we thought when you collapsed."

"What!? What happened? Is Naruto alright? What about Isamu?" Frantically performing hand seals, Jiraiya's hair grew long and spiked, shredding the bed, hospital gown, and cord as he jumped towards the door. Before he could get any farther, the door opened, directly into his face. The ANBU smacked his face as the orderly looked into the room, confused. "Where has Jiraiya-sama gone? Did he escape already?"

Jiraiya woke to find himself in the hospital, again. This time however, his hands had metal gauntlets on his hands with pins in the joints to prevent him from using hand seals, and chakra reinforced manacles on his ankles, wrists, and neck to stop him from trying to escape again.

As Jiraiya began trying to slip his hands and feet out of the manacles, a loud throat-clearing halted him in his tracks. "Do you know that you started trying to escape even before you began to wake up? These restraints wouldn't be necessary if you hadn't incapacitated two of my ANBU on the fourth attempt. You should really try to get over your hatred of hospitals."

Jiraiya flicked his eyes over to the chair at the edge of his bed, seeing a smirking Sarutobi struggling not to laugh at the stunned look in Jiraiya's eyes, before the elderly Hokage's entire countenance hardened. "Tell me what happened after you entered Naruto's seal."

At the Yamanaka training grounds

The private training grounds of the Yamanaka were packed. Everybody not on a mission was there, waiting quietly for the clan elders to make a decision on who was to be the next clan head. Several of the people there were quietly weeping, as Isamu's death was revealed to them that morning. Well-loved for his selfless nature and calm bearing, Isamu had brought a peaceful stability to the clan that was rarely found, as many of the Yamanaka had quite a short fuse on their explosive tempers. The entire clan was in mourning, but in light of the recent events with the Kyuubi attack, it was of the utmost importance that they have a leader. As soon as the news had been delivered, the clan elders had immediately shut themselves into the clan hall, a heated debate arising even before they made it into the building. Just before dark, the doors of the hall opened, and the elders slowly filed out, gazing impassively at the crowd before them. Last to walk out was the Head Elder, a monstrously tall old man bearing the name Naoki. His typical Yamanaka blonde hair had lines of silver running through it, giving the imposing man an almost unearthly regal air. Walking to the front of the group, he began to speak. "The elders have chosen a candidate to be the next Yamanaka clan head! Will Inoichi Yamanaka, nephew of Isamu Yamanaka and nearest heir to the Clans third family please step forward?" The Head Elder's voice rang out across the training ground.

The crowds parted before a 31 year old Inoichi, holding his newly born daughter while staring at the elders in mild shock. In a daze, he handed off young Ino to his wife, and slowly walked forward to the raised platform at the edge of the grounds. "I- I don't know what to say. I'm honored to be offered the position, honored elders, but what of my position in the Torture and Interrogation Department? I can't do both, there simply isn't enough time in the day."

"We have foreseen this problem, and have sent a request to Lord Hokage to begin looking for a replacement Department Head, should you choose to accept your new status as Clan Head instead of remaining in T&I. Sarutobi-sama should be sending a reply any minute. Ah, speak of the ANBU, and they shall appear." A messenger ANBU, head bowed, waited until the Head Elder accepted the scroll before disappearing into the shadows.

Opening the scroll, Naoki perused its contents quickly before looking at Inoichi. "It seems that the Hokage has no replacement currently available for you. However, I have spoken with the other elders on how to proceed should this be the case, and we have a solution that already has the Hokage's approval. Should you wish to become Clan Head, you must find a replacement for your current responsibilities within the next year. In the meantime, I shall serve as a substitute Clan Head, and we will discuss who will take the position should you not wish to take it or cannot find a suitable replacement over the course of the next year. Do you wish to accept this opportunity?"

Inoichi thought it over for a few seconds before his face became set with determination. "I accept the chance to become the Clan Head of the Yamanaka."

The Hokage was concerned over the events within the seal. While most would assume this worry was over the Kyuubi's potential escape, Jiraiya could tell that his anxiety went deeper than that. No, his sensei was more troubled by the potential loss of the Yondaime and Uzumaki heir that had already wormed his way into the battered old man's heart. "What about the filter. What did you manage to do to it before you were forced out?"

Before the Toad Sage could reply, an ANBU appeared outside the window, awaiting permission to enter the confines of the privacy seal on the Hokage's office. As Sarutobi waved him in, he pulled a scroll bearing the Yamanaka seal on it out of his vest. "An urgent message from the Yamanaka Elders, regarding their choice in the new Clan Head."

As Sarutobi read over the scroll, he quickly ran through the list of T&I department members that he knew, considering, then rejecting, each of them for Inoichi's replacement. '_Well, the elders seem to have realized this could be a problem, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to see if he can find a suitable replacement. Very well, I will grant their request to allow Inoichi to conduct his own search.' _Quickly pulling a blank scroll out of his desk, he wrote a few lines and gave it to the ANBU. "Take this to the Yamanaka's." The ANBU bowed, and left the room. Looking back over at Jiraiya, he waited patiently for the Toad Sages reply, only to find that the blasted man wasn't even paying attention. "Jiraiya! You have not answered my question!"

With a start, Jiraiya grinned sheepishly before beginning his report. "Sorry sensei. Ok, the seal Minato used for the filter was not the one he should have used. Naruto's seal is eight pronged, but the filter used was designed for a four pronged seal. Very similar to the way Minato added two four pronged seals together to create the Shiki Fuiin, I placed a second layer for the filter seal, a simple two pronged design with deliberately wide spacing for future additions. The seal isn't perfect, and will still allow a substantial quantity of the Kyuubi's tainted chakra through, but he's not going to die anytime soon. He will suffer some side effects from the taint, but I can't be sure what those will be, although I am going to work on the filter design and see how much I can tweak and improve it. Sensei; how is Naruto? Doing what I did to his seal probably caused immediate side effects, and I want to know what they are."

Sarutobi sighed, "Naruto has undergone some… interesting changes. Strangely, his appearance has grown slightly more feral. His pupils have narrowed slightly, and his nails have hardened and sharpened a bit. Not a lot, but still noticeable. Also, his hearing, sight, and smell seem to have improved some, as he shows sign of reacting to stimuli from much farther than before. His sense of taste seems to have dulled; it takes a lot more flavor to get a reaction to food from him. Finally, his sense of touch seems to have dulled over most areas of his body, but his whisker-marks, fingers, and toes seem to have a much higher sensitivity than before. Chakra-wise, Naruto's system is much cleaner, and his reserves and coils are already showing signs of growth. His chakra is also a deeper blue than before, a little lighter than his eye color instead of the standard pale blue that most people have. He also still has dots of red chakra in his system, but not nearly the same amount as before."

Jiraiya frowned, thinking on the development. "I'll need to see him to check, but it is possible that the filter seal has been altered slightly in its effects. I'll need to check on Naruto before I can confirm this, but the seal may be converting his chakra to a weak type of youki in order to balance the Kyuubi's chakra with his own, giving him some... less human traits."

As Sarutobi pondered over how he should protect Naruto from the not so benign reactions the populace would have on his new look, he began to wonder what he was going to do with the boy in general. "Jiraiya, in light of these changes, I think placing Naruto in a civilian orphanage would be… unwise. His new changes are going to make it difficult for people to understand that he is not the Kyuubi. I think- "

As the elderly Hokage spoke, the ANBU from earlier returned, bearing the response from the Yamanaka clan. While he glanced over the scroll, Jiraiya stared at the clan symbol on the seal. "Sensei, I think I know where we can put Naruto to protect him best."

Omake: Why Jiraiya hate's hospitals

As Jiraiya snored loudly in his (reserved) hospital bed, a sudden spike of killing intent, and the sound of knuckles cracking brought his peaceful slumber to an abrupt end. "So, I see you didn't learn your lesson after the last time you were caught peeping on the kunoichi hot springs. Perhaps a 3 month stay in the hospital being my medical test subject will teach you to curb your outer pervert." Very few people in the hospital got any rest over the next couple of months, as Jiraiya's screams of agony penetrated every wall in the building. Ironically, more medical ninjutsu were created and improved during those three months than ever before, and Tsunade finally achieved her dream of becoming a world renowned medic testing all of her new techniques on Jiraiya; most notably, her newly discovered, and now infamous, chakra enhanced strength. To this day, Jiraiya has an irrational fear of hospitals, and does his best to escape them as soon as he realizes he's in one. Unfortunately for Tsunade, his fear of hospitals, inspired by her, did not translate to a healthy fear of her. Jiraiya is still famous for his almost masochistic determination to peep on women, despite the devastating beatings he undergoes each time he does so.

**That took… longer than I expected. I knew what I wanted to do, but explaining what is going on was harder than I thought it would be. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter, let me know what you think!**


	4. Yamanaka Naruto

**Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a while, updates for me are probably going to come in bursts between my busy periods. Just a short intro to Naruto's new life today, and my first OC.**

**I don't own Naruto, but if I start a Japanese Mob, I can try to own Kishimoto.**

Naruto was terrified. He had never seen anyone that angry and he was not going to get caught this time. Quickly ducking into an alleyway and wall jumping up to a second story window, he dove into a random building to escape that wrathful figure chasing after him, melding into the shadows as quietly as he could and hoping, praying that he wasn't found.

"NARUTO YAMANAKA GET BACK HERE!" Inoichi was furious. The Jinchuuriki boy was well known for his pranks, but this one really took the cake for him. The tricky little blonde had followed him to work, and painted all over the interrogation rooms in bright, garish colors. Pictures of fluffy animals, rainbows, anything that took all the intimidation out of a room, he painted all over the walls. At the same time, all of the interrogators lockers were booby-trapped with glitterbombs and fluorescent orange paint. The only rooms that got a different treatment were the Interrogators offices. Ibiki's office had received a rather well drawn depiction of the Nine-Tails snarling behind his desk, glaring at anyone who entered the room. Inoichi's room had received a huge eye, giving a lidless stare at anyone who entered. Anko's, naturally, got a picture of a snake poised to strike, coming out of a black background. Honestly, the office pictures would probably stay; they were intimidating and fit the reputations and mindsets of the ones who had received them. However, almost all of the scheduled interrogations were forced on hold due to a lack of suitable rooms to use, and the entire department was set back trying to get the paint off the walls.

Inoichi searched for a few more minutes before pulling his trump card. "If you don't come out right now I will tell the Ichiraku's no ramen for a month." He hated the trump card, it made Naruto mope and the Ichiraku's wanted money to make up for the lost revenue of their best customer, but it nearly always did the trick in getting Naruto to appear. Distracted for a moment, Inoichi missed his chance to dodge as a suddenly irate Naruto appeared seemingly from nowhere, landing directly on top of him.

"NO! I won't let you! The ramen will be mine!" Naruto screamed as Inoichi pulled the furious boy off of him and spiked his intent, quelling the boy's childish anger instantly. "You are in serious trouble. Don't even think about demanding anything from me after the stunt you pulled at my work today. What possessed you to do that?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head, grinning sheepishly. "Well, I heard that weird snake lady talking about how easy all of the interrogations were lately, and how she wanted a challenge to work on. I didn't know which room she'd use, so I painted all of them to make sure her next job was harder."

Inoichi sweat-dropped. Anko was in fact the only one still doing interrogations today, claiming that this was exactly the challenge she was looking for, stalking into the room covered in glittering paint with a sadistic grin that made even Ibiki lose some of his stoic reserve. '_Not that I'd tell him that, he'd take it as permission to do it again.' _"Well guess what. Just for that, I'm going to make you do your meditation lessons twice a day for the next month, and you will have to clean the entire compound by the end of the week. If you do any more pranks during this time, I'll not only take away your ramen, but I'll make you be Ibiki's assistant for a whole year. Your extra meditation lessons will start at 1 PM, which is in a few minutes, so you'd better hurry up." Dragging the downcast boy back to the Yamanaka's grounds, he dropped him in front of the guards at the front gate and stalked back to the Interrogation office.

Naruto quickly stood up, and quickly made a run for the Yamanaka meditation shrine. He flew into the room, only to crash into an old man meditating. "AAGH!" he shouted, blearily looking around while rubbing at his head, "What hit me?"

"The better question, Yamanaka boy, is who did you hit." A deep, rumbling voice behind him spoke out. Naruto shivered, turning around slowly, trying to avoid the wrath of this mysterious man. "I-I'm sorry sir, are you ok?" Looking up, he was greeted by the man bent over, peering directly into his eyes. "Whaa!" he stumbled back, unnerved by how close the man was. Suddenly, he was pulled into an enormous bear –hug. "Isamu! I missed you soo much! How is my little girl today? Did you like the breakfast I made you? Did you see your friends?" The elder man rambled on, asking 'Isamu' question after question as Naruto frantically tried to escape, pulling away and shouting. "Who the heck aare you! Are you sick or something? MY NAME IS NOT ISAMU!"

At that, the man stopped shaking Naruto and looked into his eyes. "Wh- what are you talking about? How could you not be my little girl? A- are you saying that you don't want to be my daughter?" The man's anguished pleas confused Naruto, but he sounded so sad! He had to do something! "N-no that's not it at all." He began, only to be shook again as the man gleefully shook him and buried him deeper into his chest.

"Put me down! I can't talk to you if your shaking me like that!" Abruptly, Naruto found himself back on the ground, the old man sitting in front of him like a little kid waiting for a story.

"Well, what are you waiting for, tell me how you were today?" Naruto sweat-dropped. '_Just who is this crazy old man?_' Quickly trying to think of something to say, he opened his mouth to speak, only to have the old man cover his lips with a finger. "Nevermind, I can see you don't really want to talk about it. So what did you come to see me for then?" At this, Naruto's sweat-drop was joined by another. '_This dude is nuts. Wait a second; all of the crazy people are super strong ninja's. I heard Inoichi complaining about it last week. Maybe I can get him to train me!'_


End file.
